Subscribe To ConventionalWisdomInstitute

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

[Excerpts from an
interview with Bick Whitener, currently principle with Bickley and Company.]

"I became the Director
of Getting-Things-Done." That’s how Bick Whitener describes the way his boss acknowledged
his leadership. Bick Whitener has a long, distinguished career in the
property/casualty insurance world and has been with companies such as The
Hartford, Prudential, Atlanta Casualty, Assurant, and many others.

I was privileged
to consult to one of the companies where Bick was a manager and see the vibrant
culture of accomplishment he created. He and his team were very different and
getting more done than other areas. They were a "real" team and excited to learn
new skills and approaches. The very positive culture he developed within his
division stood in contrast to the overall company.

Rebecca
Staton-Reinstein: Bick, you have a solid track record of changing the culture
of any group you work with to make it more of an integrated team that gets
solid results where people love being part of that team. How do you do it?

Bick Whitener: Let
me start with what I believe is a simple statement. Culture change happens
through people. I believe life is about two things. Life is about choices and
life is about relationships.

Culture change happens
through people. Have you ever noticed that people don’t like change? So if it
is going to happen through people and they don’t like to change, leadership has
to be both effective and efficient in helping them change, in helping with the
culture transition.

Your people are
your most valuable asset. Their time and their skills are your most valuable
asset. You have to be wise how you spend those. People go crazy when I look at
them and say, turn off whatever the notification is that tells
you that you have a new e-mail. It is mail. How many times a day do you run to
your mailbox? How many times a day do you run to the post office? Take your
time and focus on the important things. The important things are "the right
things."

Rebecca: Bick, I
know you have a wealth of knowledge and wisdom you package in pithy statements
you call Bickisms. Can you walk us through your steps for culture change with
these Bickisms? (For a few more, check out Bick’s LinkedIn profile.)

Bick: Sure!

STEP 1 Bickism:
Never talk about culture.

Rebecca, let me start by telling you I’m a sneaky
little devil. I never start out talking about culture. But what I do start out
talking about is the vision that we have; that journey that we want to take,
where we want to get to. So you have got to find people that want to buy into
that vision. Clearly articulate that vision. Show them what that vision is
going to do in terms of value to them in the future. Then find the people that
want to buy in.

Don’t misunderstand. I like strategy. I like
tactics. I like planning. I like locking myself in a room and talking about
innovation. But I don’t like it unless things get implemented because brilliant
ideas that are not implemented lose their value.

STEP 3 Bickism:
Create a shepherding group.

Once you find people that want to buy in, you need
a shepherding group. That is a tricky part of the process because the
shepherding group has to have adequate spheres of influence. Otherwise you are
going to get into trouble because those with the power will oppose the vision
and the change and they will stop it.

In the early 1500s Niccolo Machiavelli said, There
is nothing more difficult to take in hand, or more perilous to conduct, or more
uncertain of success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order
of things. And almost 500 years later that is proving to be very true in our
business environments today.

So never talk about culture. Talk about the vision,
speak the vision, get people to buy in, find a shepherding group and start the
process.

STEP 4 Bickism: Go
for small wins.

Once you get the buy in you can actually start
going for small wins. Don’t shoot big. Once you get a couple of wins two great
things are going to happen. The first one is some fresh people are going to buy
into the culture and the buy-in group gets bigger. And the second thing is you
start to create momentum and that momentum becomes your friend.

It’s shared vision followed by wins. Celebrate the
wins. Make them very, very visible.

Hear more Bickisms
and gain more wisdom as Bick Whitener discusses his remarkable achievements and
how he got them. Listen to the entire interview on Business in the Morning produced
by Todd Schnick. http://businessinthe.am/bick-whitener/

An in-depth
profile of Bick Whitener will be featured in the forthcoming book, Washington’s
Shadow: How Leaders Cast a Long Shadow and Create a Positive Culture.

Friday, October 31, 2014

There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage
than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the
surest basis of public happiness...To encourage literature and the arts is a
duty which every good citizen owes to his country. – George Washington

A nation that expects to be
ignorant and free in a state of civilization…expects what never was and never
will be. – Thomas Jefferson

The current public discussion of Ebola quarantines has me
throwing bipartisan shoes at the TV. I don’t want to discuss the political
posturing, which is bad enough but expected.

I want to hone in on the sad state of our general education
and the absence of critical thinking. Founders Washington and Jefferson warned
us and gave us sage advice, which we seem to be ignoring at our peril.

OK, what right do I have to be spouting off about Ebola,
science, education, and critical thinking? Here are a few bio tidbits:

Rebecca the Science Teacher

Trained as biochemical geneticist

Medical researcher

Taught biological and physical sciences for ten years in
high school and college

Consult to a county STEM board (supports programs in
Science Technology, Engineering and Math)

Let's take a quick
look at Ebola and the missing critical thinking here in the U.S. Ebola is a
devastating disease we mostly ignored here until it entered big cities and
spread quickly in three West African countries. Volunteers from around the
world have gone to these countries to contribute their skills to fragile and
collapsing health systems there. They are working in very primitive conditions
in places where electricity and potable and running water are not the norm and local
practices exacerbate the spread of the disease.

Fact 1: People only
spread the virus by direct contact with bodily fluids, most commonly diarrhea,
blood, and vomit.

Fact 2: When people
have no symptoms they cannot spread the virus.

Fact 3: The
incubation period is 21 days in humans.

Fact 4: The Centers
for Disease Control have issued new guidelines based on the degrees of exposure
to people with the virus and supported by international health groups.

The hysterical moves
by the governors of New York and New Jersey, other states, and the U.S.
military to quarantine everyone returning from work in the region ignores the
facts, ignores the science, ignores the advice of medical experts, and ignores
critical thinking.

Listening to TV
reporters, news readers, and "hosts" stir the pot of fear and misinformation is
more than inane, it is dangerous. The rampant speculation, ignorant questions
and comments, and refusal to listen to science are scary. The fact that people fall
for it points to what many studies show; the dire state of science and critical
thinking education in this country is a threat to democracy. Even the college-educated
reporters and commentators demonstrate a lack of scientific understanding and
thinking a 7th grader should have mastered.

This is nothing new.
When the Russians launched Sputnik and caught the U.S. flatfooted, there were
no other girls in my physics and advanced math classes and many college-bound boys
avoided these hard classes. Government created the National Defense Education
Act and the National Science Foundation created four new science curricula. I
went through graduate school with an NDEA loan, which I repaid by teaching,
including the new science curricula.

I have a couple of
suggestions:

Create modern
programs, similar to the post-Sputnik ones, to assure every student, in every
school, gets grounding in real science and critical thinking. Emphasize
teaching elementary and middle school teachers to teach the understanding,
application, and love of science. Science must be learned hands on with
experiments and investigation. We must teach everyone to think critically.

Governors and other
officials, it's time to admit you reacted and did not base your moves on
science nor think critically about the situation. George Washington said
it best,"To err is nature, to rectify error is glory."

Reinstate literature, the arts, science, and social science
as the centerpieces of K-12 education. A recent study confirmed music study
increases other intellectual capacities. In an era when schools routinely cut
all the arts education in favor of drilling for standardized tests, real education
is sacrificed.

Everyone needs STEM and STEAM. We all need a well-rounded
education to function as citizens and leaders in our complex world. We must be
critical thinkers, learning that discipline from the sciences and the arts. The
alternative is a nation that can be whipped into hysteria by the ignorant and
the evil.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

At first it seemed very exciting. My fellow manager, Sara,
and I would be reporting to two vice presidents in the newly reorganized
division. WooHoo! VP Marco was new to the company and came with a stellar
reputation for innovation. VP James had been with the company many years and was
a solid performer. Our first meetings went fine and Sara and I were asked to
look over our existing plans and be ready to present our results.

That’s when the fun began.

Marco came to our joint team meeting, engaged in some
get-to-know-you conversation, said he understood where we were going, and
participated in some fun activities with us.

James met Sara and me in his office – (based on his schedule
blocked out in 15-minute chunks.) He grilled us for about 10 minutes and asked
us for documentation, detailed project plans, and a weekly update.

OK. Two different bosses, two different styles.

Marco might show up any time, kibitz for a while, ask what
we needed from him, and look for ways to smooth the way. He wanted a one-page report;
a few bullet points, and lots of white space. When we met with him, he wanted
us to come to the point quickly. He often organized social events for our two
teams.

James was only available at the appointed weekly meeting,
although if you could find a blank 15 minutes you could have a quick
“emergency” session. Reports needed to be very detailed, with references,
graphs, charts, and hard data. He often said something like, “In the footnote
on page 34 you said X. How does that jive with what you show on the graph on
page A-7?

After every meeting, Sara and I would compare notes and
share our frustrations. We realized we had to adapt to Marco and James quickly
in different ways. We evolved 4 strategies to first cope with and then succeed
with their different expectations.

Identify all bosses’ work and communication styles and flex
your own. Each week we prepared two reports; one high level, one detailed. In
the review meetings with Marco we hit the high points and got out. We patiently
explained every point in detail and double checked any work for inaccuracies
and inconsistencies for James.

Proactively develop plans, schedules, and expectations in
advance and get their approval. Once we had concrete plans, James was
comfortable going through the detailed results and confirming next steps. Marco
saw the plans and schedules as a way for us to be fast and focused as we
reported highlights.

Invite discussion not challenges with aligned assertive
communication. Sara and I learned to think through ways of presenting
information that did not set off confrontation inadvertently. We used inclusive
language, aligned with their situations, and phrased questions that stimulated
dialogue. The tension dissipated from the discussions.

Use problem solving to resolve conflict when it arises. When
Marco or James had strong different opinions on our results or recommendations,
we invited them (tactfully) to engage in some problem solving with us. At the
very least, we got them to restate the problem clearly and concisely so we
could work on solutions off line.

None of this was easy and it won’t be for you either. No
matter where you sit in the hierarchy, when you have more than one boss, you
must be both flexible and firm. Flex to match your bosses’ individual
communication and work styles. Be firm in working out a plan to accommodate all
their needs and get agreement. Be firm in showing places where overlapping
demands make success unlikely and helping them recognize consequences. Be
flexible in working out solutions.

Always scan the environment to assess what you are learning
from working with multiple bosses. Both James and Marco taught me many positive
lessons I’ve applied successfully in other assignments. Once I let the
frustration recede and recognized each person’s strengths and focused on them,
I was open to learning and growth...my results got better too.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

James Madison has no monuments or fancy remembrances as do many of the other founding fathers (and mothers.) Yet without him, we might not have our republic, our constitution, and be an independent country today.When Madison was a student, at what is now Princeton, he stayed another year to work on a study of the world's constitutions while soaking up the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment from the university's president. This began his life-long passion for republican ideals and constitutions. After flailing about for a while after college, he was elected to the Virginia (Colonial) House of Burgesses and began his life as a politician. He followed this calling to public service until the end of his presidency. Those who call for term limits and hold their noses at the idea of a "politician" could learn a lot from his decades of devotion.After the Revolution, he watched with mounting horror as self interest brought out the worst in the Virginia legislature and the Congress under the Articles of Confederation was worse than "do nothing." By 1878, the country was in turmoil, Congress was impotent, groups of States talked of leaving the fragile union spurred on by European powers, the economy was a shambles, and Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts frightened every property owner. The prognosis for continued existence of the country was dire. So Madison joined Alexander Hamilton and Ben Franklin to conspire to overthrow the government; they committed treason for the second time. Working with others, Madison persuaded General George Washington to join in the call for a Constitutional Convention to provide the political cover they needed. Madison got the resolution through the Confederation Congress and became a delegate along with Washington and others to the gathering. His long-time rival, Patrick Henry, refused to have anything to do with it; "I smell a rat!" He was right, of course. Madison's intent was not to amend the Articles but to abolish them.

Jemmy and Me

He arrived in Philadelphia early, having made a thorough study of republics and constitutions "ancient and modern." He persuaded the governor to present his draft as the "Virginia Plan." Although little of it remained in the final draft signed by the delegates, it did serve as the agenda and shaped the nature and substance of the debates. Madison and the most committed delegates toiled for four months in the Philadelphia summer heat with early morning committee meetings, all-day debates, and informal politicking in the evening. Madison took voluminous notes we still marvel at today and early Supreme Court justices used to unravel "original intent."But when the delegates scattered back to their states, the work wasn't over. They had to get the special ratifying bodies to agree to the document. In Madison's Virginia, Patrick Henry led the anti-federalist forces. Despite Henry's legendary oratorical skills and political clout, Madison bested him and eked out a tiny margin of victory.Then he was off to the new Congress as a Representative in the House and to serve as Washington's whip in that body to achieve his legislative agenda. He served as Jefferson's Secretary of State and then as President, presiding over the War of 1812. In fact, he was the only Commander in Chief to actually go into battle, despite having no military credentials. He was the last of the "fathers" to depart this world and did so on this day, June 28, 1836. His parting words were, "Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear." James Monroe, who succeeded him as President, referred to Madison in his dying words, "I regret that I should leave this world without again beholding him."In my Google Alert for Madison, about 95% of the mentions are from people, right or left, trying to claim his "authority" for their views. Like anyone quoted out of context, Madison's words are distorted. More importantly, because Madison was a patriot, a passionate politician, and as partisan as anyone, you can always find some snippet to support you. These folks do a disservice to the man, his memory, and his message.Madison, like all of us, evolved and changed with age. At the end of the Convention, he thought the Constitution was a failure because it created a Senate representing the states and not the population. Yet he went to the ratifying convention and worked with Hamilton to write the Federalist Papers defending the new Constitution with every ounce of his considerable persuasive talent. By Washington's second term, he had joined Jefferson to destroy Hamilton and the Federalists and create the Republican Party (precursor of today's Democrats.) As president, he opposed legislation for building roads and canals or providing "charity." As an elder statesman, he made it clear he had evolved to support these government efforts.What made Madison so great was he was NOT an ideologue. He constantly thought about things, changed his mind, and made it clear where he stood at any moment. He was prepared to compromise for the good of the nation. He seldom held real animosity for his opponents. (Today he'd be derided as a flip-flopper, drummed out of whatever party he was in, and excoriated by the chattering class and talk radio.)What I've always found so appealing about Madison was his humanness. My favorite quote from him is (out of context, of course,) "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." Madison is great because he is no saint on a pedestal. He was dead wrong on many things. He made no claims to perfection. We can admire him, not because we agree with him or can find some phrase to prove our political point, but because he thought continuously and was willing to change and grow and leave old notions behind.If today's leaders, whether in politics or business, would spend a little time with "Jemmy, the great little Madison," they might be less inclined to require unthinking adherence to a static idea. Madison's interpretation of the republic's mission statement, the Preamble to the Constitution, matured and morphed over time. If we could take a page from his book, we might all succeed in evolving, being more strategic, making better decisions...and leaving old ideas behind.* * * * *(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein and Advantage Leadership, Inc.Want to know more about Madison and his role in the Constitution and early republic? Want to know how modern leaders exploit the Madison Factor? Check out Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.

Your research into the planning sessions of the Constitutional Convention and the struggles that our framers of the Constitution faced has been cleverly weaved into the strategies of modern business. I am pleased to have your book.

Monday, June 23, 2014

“It's a smart business decision to hire veterans. Give vets
a mission and the result you want and they will achieve it. That’s what they've been trained to do,” an entrepreneur pointed out on a recent business show.

What about your organization? Have your folks been trained
to be laser-focused on the mission? Will they give it their all to get results?
Is this what you've trained them to do?

In too many companies, employees may not even know the
mission or it may have been relegated to meaningless words on a plaque. I
recently had a poor experience with an airline and took a look at its mission.
I couldn't find it on the website but an analyst’s report pulled a statement off the annual report that covered the territory...Not a word about the
customer among its five focus areas. The airline believed if it was clean, safe,
on time, had courteous employees, and delivered great revenue at competitive
costs it would have “exceptional customer satisfaction.”

How does that happen exactly? If I'm an employee, focused on
the five areas, as long as I stay courteous and don’t do anything to escalate
costs, I'm fulfilling the mission.

This is not a rant about poor airline service. This is a
rant about the power of mission to focus everyone’s energy to achieve company goals.
Examiners for a major quality award routinely ask every employee they encounter,
“What’s your role in achieving the corporate mission?” When people can tell you
this in their own words, you get stellar results. The whole point of the mission
is to guide daily action and decision making.

When a mid-sized commodity manufacturer was faced with an
urgent need to transform or be acquired, it started by revamping its mission
and vision.

Mission: The people of XYZ are leaders in the design and
manufacture of abc solutions to meet your def needs.

Vision: To be a premier supplier of abc using innovative
technology throughout our company while sustaining this in a positive and
creative environment.

This was a major change for the company; emphasizing
people and a positive, creative environment. It was the first step on their
successful, sustained renewal journey.

You can read about creating a mission and the bottom-line
impact data in an earlier blog. http://tinyurl.com/3uz4mnb
To repeat one fact: in companies where
almost every employee believes the mission is important, profits are 5 – 15%
higher than in companies where few people believe mission is important.

My husband and I were honored to be part of a ceremony
commemorating the 70th anniversary

of D-Day at Omaha beach. The band
was conducted by Colonel Arnald Gabriel, Conductor Emeritus, The United States Air Force Band, who had come ashore on this beach that “longest day” as a young recruit. His mission was to get
rid of the machine gun nests raining death on the troops wading ashore. The
mission was clear so the results were clear.

If you want to put your people first in meeting goals,
that must be clear in the mission. If you want to build a positive, creative
environment, that must be in your mission. If you want to achieve "exceptional customer satisfaction," as the airline claimed, you must have that in your mission, train and empower employees, and reward them for doing everything to achieve the mission.

“Get people on a mission and the metrics will follow,”
John Zumwalt, former CEO of engineering firm PBS&J, told his company leaders
when he took over. If you have a strong mission AND train your people to
accomplish it, you will succeed. Learn from our veterans.

* * *
*

Join a live webinar, Get
People on a Mission: Strategic Decision Making Drives Daily Action, Thursday,
June 25, 1 PM Eastern or catch it on demand or on DVD. http://tinyurl.com/m8d6bf7 Learn
from contemporary CEOs and the U.S. Founding Fathers about how to create a
mission to drive results.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

We've all been there...the decision that just won’t come...the problem that won't get solved. We've pondered, poked around, purloined others’ solutions, practiced team brainstorming, purchased problem-solving/decision-making tools, procrastinated, paced, and packed up and gone to the pub. Still nothing happened...We know from neuroscience findings over the past decade, we are using the wrong part of the brain to get the answer. Discovering the best solutions is not about Mr. Spock logic, deep thinking or wrinkling our brow.Making successful decisions and solving intractable problems require total relaxation, going to our "happy place," and upping our energy level. This is not some new-age amateur reading of quantum physics. Scientists can scan the brain as we solve problems to demonstrate exactly what is happening where. Luda Kopeikina wrote a break-through book based on neuroscience research, in-depth interviews and problem-solving sessions with leading executives, and years of observing her boss, Jack Welch, as he made decisions and solved problems. In The Right Decision Every Time: How to Reach Perfect Clarity on Tough Decisions, she details her findings, which have been augmented by ongoing independent research. We must harness the assets of our physical, mental, and emotional functions and enter what Kopeikina calls the Clarity state.

The key to reaching mastery in decision-making is the ability to focus your physical, mental, and emotional resources on an issue like a laser beam. Such focus enables you to reach decision clarity faster and easier...Clarity is a feeling of certainty and of internal alignment with the solution. The objective of a decision-making process is to reach clarity. A right decision is one when the decision maker is emotionally and mentally congruent with it. Reaching clarity quickly is a differentiating mark of leaders.

Monday, April 28, 2014

(This is a re-post of an earlier blog.)If you’ve taken on a big assignment -- moving the office,
planning a big event, or developing a new system to track employees’ mobile
devices – you’ve been asked to manage a project, with or without the title. If
you have amazing organizational and people skills, and luck, you may have
pulled it off without a hitch...

If you are like most mortals, you had a few stumbles and
bumbles. Take a friend of mine who was asked to put on a 1-day conference recently.
He was energetic, dedicated, hardworking, and enthusiastic. His positive
attitude was contagious so he lined up top speakers and recruited volunteers to
help out. I heard mumblings over the months as preparations continued and
problems mounted. The night before the conference, he held a reception for
everyone who worked on the event. That’s when I saw it was a mess...

The next day I arrived early; parking was confusing,
registration was chaos, and the exhibitors who were setting up didn’t know what
was going on. OK, nothing disastrous...yet. Once the main program began, things
seemed mostly OK to the audience until one speaker had to repeat his
presentation because the AV was so screwed up.

Behind the scenes, insanity reigned. AV failed right and left,
special sessions were disorganized, and nothing – nothing – seemed to be going
right. The day finally ended but the real disasters weren’t over. There was not
enough sponsorship money to cover expenses and pay vendors for food, AV,
publicity, transportation, or anything else. Fallout just kept coming and
things are still not resolved many months later.

Could the results have been different? Absolutely! If he had
used a few basic skills of project management, he might have avoided most of
the problems under his control.

3 tips to manage any project:

·Define a clear Business Purpose. What outcome are
you expecting? For this project it was not, “We will have a great conference.”
It should have been, “As a result of this conference X will happen.” Vet every
idea with, “Will this help fulfill the Business Purpose.”

·Assume the worst. Risk management is the first
priority. A project creates a unique product or service so, of course, you’ll
have a project plan; detailed tasks, done by whom, in what time frame, with
what result. Predicting the risks and scanning for early warning signs is THE project
activity to perform flawlessly.

·Have Plans B and C ready to go. If risk is first,
contingency planning is next on the list to deal with the most likely and
devastating risks. Plan B won’t be enough. You’ll need a backup for the backup.
Organizing backups creates a new mindset; Murphy’s Law is optimistic.

What would have been the difference for my friend with just
these 3 items of good project management?(1) He would have kept everyone
focused on the outcomes, not just doing tasks. (2) He would have examined the risk
management plan every day as results came in and looked for those early warning
signs; especially the lack of sponsorship money. (3) He would have had backup
AV, adult volunteers, and other contingencies ready to go.

You do not have to flail, fumble or fail at your next big
assignment or project. Learn the most important elements of good project
management in a webinar designed to keep out of the Night of the Living Dead.

If you’re not a “project
manager” but do tackle large assignments, sign up for our webinar, Project
Management for the non-Project Manager. Master the basics to succeed.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

I’ve always been an advocate of Tough Love. Lots of
leadership books advocate this approach. We admire folks who can carry it off
with grace and get the job done, especially when making almost impossibly difficult
decisions and forcing people to develop. In retrospect the kindest things leaders
did for me was to be tough and insistent upon my change and growth.

I could recount several stories from my own life, both
personal and professional and I’m sure you could also. Sometimes it took me years
to see the correctness of the other person’s action and appreciate that tough
love.

I’m talking about genuine kindness. You remember what that
is...think back to when you were a kid...helping a friend with her math
homework when she was struggling...putting a hot water bottle in the new
puppy’s bed to comfort his first night away from his mother...writing Princess
Elizabeth a sympathy note when her father died...

Kindness often gets lost in our hard-charging world. I
was reminded of this recently when I heard a remarkable leader talk about her "leadership
secret sauce." One of her 10 rules was Be Kind. The audience of business
executives was a little surprised when Marylouise Fitzgibbon announced this
one. She has built a reputation in the hospitality industry as a rising star with
a track record of drastically improving properties. Now as General Manager of the
W Hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach, her hotel is steadily becoming a leading
representative of the brand.

Kindness is very different from tough love. Fitzgibbon is
talking about getting out of our own way. Think about a time when you’ve had an
employee, peer or friend do something truly awful. We humans tend to react with
anger in these situations and whether we take the flight or fight route we are
almost never kind when dealing with the person. If we decided to confront the
person, most of us find it extremely difficult to control body language, words,
and tone when the metaphorical smoke is leaking out our ears. If we decide not
to confront, the overwhelming urge to gossip and put down the other person
usually takes over with just a dollop of sarcasm to keep it spicy.

The alternative kindness path is much harder than either
of these reactions. Being kind in these situations is NOT reacting. Being kind
means putting ourselves into a very different space; a place of genuine caring
for the person who has acted so badly. It’s more than deep breathing or counting
to 10. Kindness requires us to get in touch with that part of us that is
capable of genuine caring about the other person. Only in this state can we
talk with the other person and, more importantly, listen to what he or she has
to say with openness, compassion, and engagement.

This is a tough order. It goes against some of our firmly
held beliefs and the notion of what a strong leader is and does. When you are
open and kind in this way, you can now deliver the tough love message so it can
be heard by the other person. You are not holding back on the consequences or
necessarily taking any different action than you would have in the situation. Instead
you are treating the other person as a person and being rigorously honest with
yourself.

You are acting. You are returning the love to tough love.

At the end of the conversation and action you won’t feel
the elation of self justification or winning. You will feel a sense of peace
because you acted with integrity and allowed the person to keep his or her
dignity intact, often accepting the consequences, which is where the real
growth we want from tough love comes from.

What’s an example of when you were kind when you could
have been hardhearted in a tough work conversation? Share it as part of our quest
for leaders who cast a long shadow.

*****

I'm beginning work on my new book Washington's Shadow: How Leaders Cast a Long Shadow and Create a Positive Culture. Please share your stories or nominees for leaders you know who have transformed the organizational culture positively. This will be a "how-to" book to help others do the same.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Are you running like that rat in the wheel; up early, working late, vacationing
with your tablet, and taking calls whizzing down the road? The labor movement
fought hard for the 40-hour week. Do you scoff at working only 40 hours? When
was the last time you slept 7 - 8 hours for weeks at a time?

Everywhere I looked last week someone addressed the need to slow down. Bruce
Turkel wrote a great blog; NPR's TED
Radio Hour featured several presentationstoo. Wha's up?

People are questioning the efficacy of our insane pace. Hundreds of studies
over 50 years show these results; humans are designed to sleep 7 - 8 hours
every night or we become sleep deprived. When we run on 5-6 hours for months,
our health suffers, and more importantly for our productivity-obsessed business
world, our efficiency plummets. We are not as mentally astute as we think; we
make mistakes, have accidents, and destroy our mental capacity. The bad news?
We cannot make up lost sleep. We sleep in, but that's exhaustion...no net gain.

Here's some more bad scientific news; humans are designed to work 35 - 40 hours
over a 7-day period. 50 years of data show a sad trajectory; once we work 9 or
10 hours a day, several days, our efficiency drops like a stone. Keep it up for
weeks and we have to work 50 hours to do what we did in 40. The results on
productivity, mistakes, mental keenness, and capacity mirror sleep deprivation.
Depending on your health, age, physical and mental fitness, when you experience
the toll varies. Even the heartiest lose productivity within weeks.

Combine not-enough sleep with too-many work hours and you burnout. Period.

Another scary reality: Large companies have Employee Assistance programs. If
you're addicted to alcohol or drugs, they intervene and you can get treatment
for your disease. Companies understand the destructive power of addiction. What
about addiction to work? A joke, right? When they discover you're a workaholic,
they rejoice and say silently, "We've got a live one!" and
publically, "If you want something done, give it to a busy
person!"

I write about this because, "My name is Rebecca and I'm a
workaholic." I've taken the first step and admitted it. I first
realized this 20 years ago while dining with friends in Toronto. "Rebecca,
you never talk about anything except work anymore." I was gob smacked.
They were right.

My Simple Formula to Treat Work Addiction (most
days):

·Admit you
have a problem.

·Get 7-8
hours sleep.

·Eat
nutritiously.

·Exercise.

·Practice
mindfulness.

·FOCUS on
important work only for an effective 35-hour week.

When I do these things, I have more energy, get more done in less time, am
rarely sick, feel better, and enjoy life more.

What a
concept; sleep more, work less, and be more creative, efficient, and effective.

I
didn't change overnight and learned to decompress anywhere. For example, I
arrived at an Asian airport 3 hours early, discovered a butterfly garden, and
spent 2 hours in a peaceful, beautiful universe; no email, false urgency,
distractions, or modern-life intrusions. I walked out calm, energized, and
thoughtful to make the 30-hour flight a creative experience, not a dreaded
ordeal.

At
the end of your path, no one writes on your tombstone, "He was a good
corporate citizen," "She was a multitasking maven" or "The
kids bragged about how many hours mommy and daddy worked."

I
always bring these discussions back to lessons from great leaders, especially
the framers of the Constitution. The delegates included leisure naturally; they
fished, trekked to factories, attended concerts, lectures, and religious
services, read books, enjoyed tea with "the ladies" and dining with
friends, kept up lively correspondence with family and friends, and ran
businesses from afar. They mastered the art of a balanced life. Look what they
accomplished; they created a Constitution for a successful republic, which is
still in place. These guys had their wits about them. Can you say the same?

Are you ready for workaholic rehab? Are you ready to change yourself and lead
your team to be more creative and productive and transform the destructive
workaholic culture of your organization?

Dr. Deming, the great business guru said, "Why are we here [work]?
We are here to come alive; to have joy in our work."

You cannot be joyous, productive or creative when you?re running on
empty. In other words, slow down to speed up.

These extraordinary times require extraordinary performance by
every manager and leader. Start with your mission and its
power to galvanize people?s energy and imagination to accomplish more. Create a
mission to guide robust planning, execution, and daily decision making.
Get results that sustain and assure organizational growth. Sign up now!February 27, 2014 or listen at your convenience. http://tinyurl.com/5rcm256

Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan,
Perform and Progress Like the Founding Fathers is packed with practical useful information from a
group of remarkable CEOs and taps into the strategic leadership secrets of the
US Constitutional Framers. Get your copy at a special price for newsletter
subscribers: http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/friends.html